Thursday’s game at the Rogers Centre will be the last chance for Toronto baseball fans to see and pay tribute to legendary Yankees closer Maraino Rivera, the game’s all-time saves leader.

Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who is retiring at the end of the season, left this poignant message in the Red Sox bullpen after New York's longtime rivals feted the future Hall of Famer in a pre-game ceremony on Sunday.

And now the end is near for Mariano Rivera as he faces the final curtain of his Hall of Fame career.

On Thursday at the Rogers Centre, it will be the last chance for Toronto baseball fans to see and pay tribute to the legendary Yankees closer, the game’s all-time saves leader and the last man allowed to wear Jackie Robinson’s retired No. 42. He is the greatest bullpen closer ever.

The irony is that Jays fans will be hoping that on Rivera’s final day on Canadian soil they will not actually have to listen to his signature song “Enter Sandman” as he jogs in from the bullpen one last time. If they do hear it, it will be because he is about to save another game for the Yankees against the Jays. Yes, fans might rather serenade him selfishly during that final inning at his seat behind the right-field fence.

Rivera has been honoured around baseball as he makes his farewell tour of major-league cities. Toronto is no different, as there will be a brief pre-game recognition on Thursday. But that ceremony will be nothing like what went on in Boston on Sunday, with a presentation of the heavy-metal 42 that hangs on the Fenway Park scoreboard given to him and signed by every member of the Red Sox.

The rivalry between those two AL East powerhouses has been a special one and for 19 years Rivera has been there. The video on the Fenway scoreboard celebrated one of the rare post-season opportunities the Sox had to beat Mo in a meaningful game. He enjoyed the moment in the spirit it was presented. Other than that, he has not really thought much about the mortality of his career.

“I haven’t been thinking about it because I’ve been so caught up in trying to win to take a place in the playoffs so that I haven’t even paid attention,” Rivera said. “The ceremony (the Red Sox) did was kind of something. It was special. It was great. But even that, I thought for a moment and by the fifth or sixth inning I was right back into what we need to win, to get to the playoffs.”

The rivalry between the Jays and the Yankees has never reached that level. Toronto’s World Series wins came with Rivera, a prospect, still in the minors. But he still remembers his first visit to Toronto, as a 25-year-old rookie from Panama, on Sept. 29, 1995.

“Oh my god, I saw the stadium and I said, ‘Wow!’ It’s something different here, a beautiful stadium,” Rivera recalled. “We had great competition. That’s what you look for, great competition. Good teams to play against and do your best.”

Rivera leaves the game atop his profession. If one was to rank the top 10 bullpen closers of all time, it might go like this, in descending order: Rivera, Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter, Trevor Hoffman, Dennis Eckersley, Goose Gossage, Lee Smith, Jeff Reardon, John Franco and John Wetteland. When Rivera broke in as a rookie, he was setting up Wetteland for their first Series win, learning much.

“I learned things like how to be a closer, how to attack hitters, don’t get beat by your second pitch, things like that,” Rivera said. “Be focused on what you have to do.”

What Rivera now feels he has to do on a human level extends far beyond any diamond. The Yankee legend is a pillar of the world community, a fixture in charitable endeavours locally in New York and in the often-troubled big picture. Of all the players who have done one of these sporting victory laps as part of his retirement, it is impossible to think of anyone with fewer enemies than Mo.

“I always try to do the right thing, not only Panama but wherever we need to help,” Rivera said. “That is something that I am proud — not that I wanted to be recognized for that — but I do it because I was helped once and I always wanted to help others. So, yes, that makes me feel good knowing that I can touch one life and can make that life better.”

Rivera’s current teammate Vernon Wells spent years across the field playing against the Yankees, first with the Jays, then with the Angels. In their four months as teammates, nothing has surprised him.

“Nothing has changed my opinion,” Wells said, while suggesting that as a hitter he owned Rivera. “He was held in the highest regard even as an opposing player. That’s the same as being his teammate. The way he carries himself, what he’s been able to accomplish in this game and doing it with the class that he has. It’s very simple to think of him only in that one way.”

Rivera entered the Jays series with 651 career saves, five more than the second-placed Hoffman. There has been debate within the Baseball Writers’ Association of America over introducing another post-season award for pitchers to complement the Cy Young. It would be for top closer, the Mariano Rivera Award. Those plans have been put on hold until he retires. What’s amazing is that Rivera’s entire 19-year career has been spent with the Yankees.

“When I came here in 1990 and put on the uniform, it was a blessing for me knowing that I was playing for the Yankees,” Rivera said, with real reverence for the franchise’s legacy. “How many championships? The respect and everywhere that we were going, they know about the Yankees. For me alone, it’s just a proud moment (all) with the family of the Yankees. That means a lot. It’s the only organization that I have played with. It’s been my family, my school, my home, everything.”

There has been speculation this month, even fuelled by Yankees manager Joe Girardi in a lighter moment, that the team may try to convince Rivera not to retire, to come back for one more tour.

“No, it’s time,” Rivera said, smiling broadly and heading for the field as the countdown hits 11.

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